EchoLink

Yesterday I decided I understood echolink well enough to try to make a few contacts.

My favorite UHF repeater is an echolink node and I talked to the owner and he gave be the specific access instructions.

I’ve connected to several repeaters in the UK and a few here in the US but I did find a single ham who would respond to my call.  Of course, that’s not much different from the response to “XXXXX listening” on any normal repeater so I guess I should not be disappointed.

I would have thought however that the sound of someone popping up from Phoenix Arizona on the repeater in Glasgow Scotland would have enough notoriety that I would get a response.

I was describing to one of my younger non-ham friends what I do as a ham radio operator. I described a normal HF SSB or CW contact.  Her response was “Why not just use ICQ (Internet chat)?” I thought about it for a minute and then told her that the allure was in making the contact, not on the content of the resulting conversation. The satisfaction comes from getting an antenna up that actually works, and doing the dance with the ionosphere and propagation so as to successfully make contact with someone.  The content of the resulting conversations is immaterial. Let’s call this class of hams the ‘technology guys’.

Of course the ‘ragchewers’ would completely disagree,  For them it is all about the content of the conversation.  It’s the old question: What’s more important, the trip or the destination?  Fortunately, there is room for both types in ham radio.

Enter EchoLink

(Understand that as I write this, I am an ‘EchoLink Skeptic’ who is trying to understand the allure of EchoLink.)

The idea of EchoLink is pretty simple: You talk on a VHF/UHF ham radio. The signal goes to repeater ‘A’. Repeater ‘A’ is connected to repeater ‘B’ via the internet. Your signal pops out on repeater ‘B’ and you can talk to anyone in repeater B’s coverage area.

The technology guys should love it.  

The thrill and satisfaction comes from bending the technology to your will; Getting the right things to work together in the right ways so that you can make the contact.  The important thing is having your signal pop out on the GB3WD repeater in Plymouth, UK and talking to someone there. Who exactly you talk to and what you talk about are less important. This seems little different from my adventures in the early days of packet radio.

The ragchewers should love it.

One of my most memorable ham radio contacts was with a ham in Ketchikan, Alaska. I learned what the weather and life is like in Ketchikan – it was very interesting. The band, radios, and antennas we used became less important than the content of our conversation. Making a contact with someone in a faraway place via EchoLink should be no different.

What about bringing up an EchoLink Node?

Connecting a radio to your computer via the EchoLink software allows people to make contacts through your node. This seems to me to be little different than putting up a repeater. While I have no desire to do that, others live for it.

I think I’m talking myself into liking EchoLink.